How Many Exactly?

Well friends I have thoroughly enjoyed all your guesses.

Some of you were really close!  Others were very ambitious!  And one, well I literally laughed out loud – Jackie Egan! Your guess you shared on the FB post was 32,324 and that would have averaged out to 10 posts per day each day for the last 10 years! But I have to tell you girl, if we were counting the number I’ve written in my head you would have won hands down!! You see I write in my head off and on all day long!  For real.  And Jackie, for the giggle you gave and the accuracy of posts in my head I thank you and would love to send you a little something!  Email me your address at: APlaceCalledSimplicity@yahoo.com

I have to tell you, Julie Teague!! You were the 2nd guess posted on Facebook and my eyes grew wide!!  You were exactly 300 off.  I actually had to do a double take about five times cause I couldn’t remember the second number and had to go back to look.  For a second I thought you had nailed it on the head perfectly and I was actually a little freaked out!  Like how does she know that exactly (with the drafts included)??  Does she have a camera rolling in our home or something?  Haha.

Honorable mention to Grace T., Andrea Gariepy and Denise L. all really very close with some crazy-good guesses!

Sara Wheeler you are the runner-up!!  Your guess was only 84 off!!  Email me your address and I will send you a little runner-up prize!  (Email:  APlaceCalledSimplicity@yahoo.com)

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No doubt, it’s been my joy and privilege to write our Place Called Simplicity for the last 10 years, that’s for sure!

When I decided to have the contest I looked to see how many I had written. I hadn’t looked at the total for a long, long, long time.  I was pretty surprised when I really contemplated the number.  Then I decided to ask Dw how many he thought I wrote over the last 10 years.  He thought for a minute and then said, “600?”  True that, 600 sounds like a pretty big number really.  However, 600 wasn’t even close!  Over the last 10 years I have written 2,687 posts! 

When I really stopped to think about writing 2,687 posts I am kinda’ dumbfounded.  Obviously it’s all relative, but to think that I sat down and wrote 2,487 times and posted them and had 200 more in the “draft folder” for a total of 2,687 – not in my wildest dreams!

Now the truth of the matter is that I pray about each post asking the Lord what to write.  I have stopped midstream in the middle of writing and chucked it knowing God was laying something else very specific on my heart.

I remember many years ago sitting in our beloved log home and beginning a silly post that would have been on the humorous side and suddenly I felt like the Lord wanted me to write about adopting at “our almost empty nesting age”.  I put the humorous one aside and wrote about adopting treasures and filling our “retirement years” with sweet faces. In the post I actually mentioned that some might think they are too old and I shared my thoughts on that!!   As I wrote it, it just flowed without any effort and I knew that I knew that it was the Lord.  Sometime later I received an email from a blog reader (now turned real life friend) who said that she and her husband had decided to pray that very day and ask God to show them if they were too old to adopt.  Only God!  It was then that she read the post and shared it with her husband and they knew it was the Lord and yes, they now have brought  home several more!!  How very humbling to know that God spoke to them so powerfully.

Believe it or not, each post takes at least three hours for me to write.  Even most of the light hearted ones take that long!! Others take significantly longer.  Some are written over many days.  I tweak and backspace and read and pray and tweak some more.  Gathering the pictures takes more time…and right now my site is giving me fits and every picture has to be put through a special site (ugh).  So my best guess is that 2,687 posts translates to somewhere around 10,000 hours!  Kinda’ actually makes my head spin!

And for those who like numbers – the total number of posts over the last 10 years (or 3,650 days) averages to one post every 1.3 days.  That too is crazy!! Obviously since bringing Ruby home I’ve slowed down a ton..but what a beautiful thrill it write.

On to the grand champ!!  The closest guess to 2,687 was 2660!!

I’m giggling as I type…and the guesser??

Who knew?  One of my dearest friends in the whole world – Sara Hintz!!  I hadn’t checked the guesses in a few days so I almost fell over!  So sweet friend – you won a Memorial Box!

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Sara and I a few years ago. 

 

Sara is a pastor’s wife, orphan advocate and fellow adoptive mom.  We met through the blog world and we have visited each other’s homes and she’s been on GO teams several times! In fact her family came to Phoenix and stayed with us a few years ago and it was one of the sweetest times ever.  Her pile with my pile made for lots of sweet memories!

So Sara girl – I’ll be sending you a Memorial Box – I know you can fill it already!

Thank you to all who guessed. You guys are the best!!  Have a beautiful weekend!  The temperature has cooled off today.  It’s only 108 out.  Earlier in the week it was 116.  Almost felt like an oven and yes, I still love, love, love living here! The water in the pool is like bath water – my favorite!  xo 

 

One thought on “How Many Exactly?

  1. Oh too bad i was so close!!!😏….
    Congratulation to sara
    And thank you so much for your great posts Linny. Always a pleasure to read you and your great thoughts about adoption!!!!💜

    Denise ( single mom of two adopted treasures)

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